Gunther Emmerlich, the great Dresden entertainer, has died: the bass of the “Showkolade”

2023-12-20 15:20:56

“Today I bring you show colade, theater, show and talk and also myself. If that’s stupid for you, then switch over!” With this song, a bearded giant stepped in front of the red curtain and in front of the television cameras in September 1987: Gunther Emmerlich, 1.93 meters tall, had been playing bass at the Dresden Semperoper since 1972 committed and noticed as a clever guest on TV shows. At the age of 43, he made his debut as host of a major evening show on GDR television, and he caused a stir and a lot of attention.

The concept of “Showkolade” itself was not particularly original: a neat mix of singing and conversation, stylistically colorful from opera, dance to pop, garnished with cabaret, for example with Wolfgang Stumph as “Beutelgermane”. The motto “Showkolade” was implemented visually: ballet dancer Nadja Puls, costumed as a chocolate girl, served Emmerlich a cup on stage. The show performed in various theaters, presented international stars as well as regional artists and became very popular in the GDR, even successfully competing with “Wetten,dass..?”.

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This was mainly due to the special host. Emmerlich was voted GDR television favorite in 1988. The native Thuringian, who initially turned to construction in his youth and only began studying singing at the Weimar University of Music in his mid-twenties, was also a real all-rounder on stage. He not only alternated between moderation and appearance, but also repeatedly flashed critical points with his mischievous smile. The show was recorded – and the harsher references were mostly edited out. In the fall of 1989, the boundaries of the show also fell: Reinhard Mey was allowed to sing his hit “Über den Wolken” with limitless freedom in Saxony.

Gunther Emmerlich is dead: the end of a pan-German career

“Suddenly all the doors were open,” Emmerlich later looked back, and he actually managed to have a pan-German career. In 1990 he received the “Bambi” award. But the “Showkolade” suddenly seemed old-fashioned and staid; and Emmerlich’s blasphemies about the PDS’s “red socks” were perceived by many as ingratiation. The educated middle-class potpourri of the show no longer fit into the TV entertainment on ARD and ZDF and was discontinued in 1990.

Other programs such as “Gunther und drüber” or an advertising show for “Glücksspirale” no longer had the previous esprit of “Showkolade”. But with a musical limitation, Gunther Emmerlich found a new field: The former opera singer, who also had jazz, blues and swing in his repertoire and had sung a main part in the oratorio “Axion Esti” by Mikis Theodorakis, became a godfather of “folk music”. , which particularly shaped the MDR program. Here he presented the program “Zauberhafte Heimat” from the first edition in 1993 until it was discontinued in 2016.

Above all, Gunther Emmerlich remained very present and popular in his adopted hometown of Dresden. He hosted the Semper Opera Ball and enjoyed performing with his Semper House Band. He lived with his family in a villa in the Weißer Hirsch district; The trained concrete worker had a hand in the expansion himself. In recent years, the man with the deep voice has increasingly found joy in silent writing.

“I wanted to let myself be finished” was the name of the first of his four memory books, in which he also remembered his difficult childhood: after the death of his parents, he came to live with his big sister when he was twelve. On December 19, 2023, Gunther Emmerlich died unexpectedly of heart failure at the age of 79. He had been on stage just a few days earlier. His last presentation on MDR will be on Wednesday, December 20th. In the show “The Most Beautiful Christmas Songs” he chats with singer Andrea Kathrin Loewig – and with the gossip Harald Schmidt.